my life, my thoughts, my world.

Pearl Jam

Originally uploaded by Anthony J. Martinez

Were I to express my thoughts and feelings on Bonnaroo in one word, I’d probably just say “ummmm.” Mostly because “totally freaking stupendously awesome” would still be a vast understatement. The entire weekend was a giant musicgasm. It was like every single band took Rock ‘n Roll Viagra™, and gave their fans hours of extended play.

For me, it all started with one hell of a painful, and occasionally rainy, motorcycle ride from my apartment in San Marcos, TX. Not having acceptable camping equipment, I pulled off I-35N in Buda, TX and paid the folks over at Cabela’s a visit. Nearly $300 later, and I had a nice one man mountaineer tent and a self-inflating sleeping mat. Both fit nicely in my left hard case on my motorcycle. Entirely too many hours later, through the brutal heat and ridiculous winds, I made it to my brother’s apartment in Pine Bluff, AR.

A few short hours later, I was awake and on the road again with a very sore backside and angry knees. Something like ten hours later, I rolled in to Manchester, TN and met my friend Johan and his wife Lynsey at the finest retail establishment ever – Wal-Mart. A case of water for the weekend, and a metal candle holder were purchased. The latter to put under my kickstand, and keep the bike upright in the mud. It worked like a charm, and cost less than $2.

Once camp was setup, we popped open some beer, and proceeded to make the long walk from our campsite to Centeroo. Thursday offered a decent glimpse at the things to come. Thousands of people. Hundreds of musicians. Plenty of venues, and of course more weed than the DEA would know what to do with. After some walking around, the group decided sleep was required before the real fun began, so into my micro-sized tent I went.

At Bonnaroo, the sun rises at 0500. I’m almost positive that 99% of those in attendance didn’t notice, but I’d also bet I was the only person there fresh out of the Army and used to waking up at first light. There were, of course, a few soldiers here and there. Johan and I had no problem visually identifying them through either tattoos, haircuts, or other tell-tale signs of .mil-ness. Anyhow, by 0800 the temperature and humidity inside my tent had risen above my comfort level, so I stepped outside and used my motorcycle as a lounge chair.

Friday hit me with a nice variety of tunes. We started off catching Steel Train, followed by Adele. When that was a wrap, we wandered over to see Les Claypool break down some ultrafunky bass riffs before we hopped stages to watch The Raconteurs. Claypool was the only one I’d ever heard, but everyone was pretty awesome. Adele has one hell of a powerful voice. Steel Train kept things pretty tight and was generally enjoyable. Les Claypool kicks some serious bassist ass. I want to see a bass-off between him and Flea. The Raconteurs really turned the awesome knob up a few levels for the day though, and set the stage for the greatness to come – Metallica. Of course, before Metallica we attempted to see Willie Nelson, and did for a minute – from about 800m away. Seems everyone else had the same idea, at the same time. Oh well. Chris Rock was funny, even my opinion of his political rants is “what a dumbass.” Fortunately, my ability to cease caring helped things out, and I just toggled the give’s-a-shit switch to the off position anytime someone started talking politics. I was there for the music, and Metallica delivered a heavy dose of metal Friday night. Aside from some random drug-addled soul puking all over my free Metallica poster, it was perfect. Perfect.

When Metallica wrapped things up, again the group required sleep. Yet again, when the sun came up the temperature quickly rose with it. Funny how that works. I have a love/hate relationship with my favorite nuclear ball of gas. Saturday was a heavy hitting day of musical bliss. I’m not even sure I can ramble enough to capture the level of excellence. In short, everyone turned the awesome dial to 11. No, scratch that, they turned it to 12.

Bands I was unlikely to have seen without outside influence (Tegan and Sara, or Cat Power) actually put on a good show. I was sufficiently impressed. Of course, for me the real fun began with The King of Blues himself, B.B. King. If you were at Bonnaroo this year, and you skipped BB entirely, get out of your chair, and do push-ups until your eyes bleed. Only then will the angels of music forgive your sins. The man is 82, and still definitely has the power to make Lucille cry. Unfortunately, there was a scheduling conflict that cut my second B.B. King experience short. If you made the Bonnaroo schedule, and decided to put Ben Folds on at the same time as B.B. King, you too should be doing several hundred push-ups. I’m not joking. If you require motivation, I’d be more than happy to put my SGT hat back on and provide it. I’m not happy about that. Still. At any rate, Ben Folds was pretty awesome, and the crowd was very into it. I skipped out early on his set to get a decent spot at Jack Johnson, not because being surrounded by screaming teenage girls was something I wanted (I can get that at home, just spend a day with my sister), but because Pearl Jam was on after Jack Johnson. For a number of reasons, including one quite attractive little blond, I’m rather glad I even bothered to go to Jack Johnson. He’s pretty good at what he does too, I approve. Hell, I might even teach myself a few of his songs. Certainly can’t hurt things any.

As soon as Jack Johnson finished, my friends (including the previously mentioned blond and her friend) pushed our way to within about 5 standing rows of the security barrier between Pearl Jam’s VIPs and the rest of the crowd. Considering the fact that Pearl Jam was what made my MasterCard fly out of my wallet and order tickets to Bonnaroo in the first place, I was very pleased with my position for the concert. A concert that exceeded anything I could have imagined. Pearl Jam played almost every single one of my favorites, and went on an hour longer than they were supposed to. They may have even pissed Kanye West off, for which they deserve additional applause as far as I’m concerned. The fact that my voice was mostly in tact the following morning is nothing short of a miracle. I’m not sure I’ve ever yelled that loudly, for that long, ever in my life. I’ve gotta thank the people I was with, and the people I was around for letting my Pearl Jam experience kick as much ass as it did. Their set was the perfect end to the first of many a Bonnaroo to come.

So there you have it, if next year’s Bonnaroo line up is even 60% as awesome as this year’s, I’m going. Of course, I’m going in a much larger tent (or an RV) and I’m going on four wheels, but I’m going. If you’re a TX friend, or hell a friend from anywhere, you need to put it on your calendar. Call it a pilgrimage if you must, but every music loving friend I’ve got owes it to themselves to get to Bonnaroo. Trust me, you won’t regret it for a second. Photos posted here

Well, the plan was good while it lasted. Unfortunately a dirty little thing I like to call “reality” bit me in the ass. Literally. Riding over 400 miles a day on my SV650S to Bonnaroo was painful to say the least. In fact, it was the inverse of fun, which was the entire point of the ride. Anyhow, my lack of a job – or even serious prospects of a job, has prompted a serious trimming of the trip-fat. I’ll do a few thousand miles, and enjoy some of what my country has to offer. When that’s done, I’ll hit the job trail hard. I will do the other portions of the ride in sections, over spring/summer breaks to come.

Ft. Davis, TX
Tombstone, AZ
The Grand Canyon
Las Vegas, NV

Today I finally got a chance to get outside and install the hard cases on my Suzuki SV650S. The cases are Hepcko & Becker Junior cases (30L) and are mounted to SW-MOTECH quick release mounts. At first, there was some concern that the mounts, and cases would not fit with my M4 full exhaust, but when all was said and done, it all fits just fine.

Here’s what my pre-install layout looked like, note that most folks won’t need a drill – unless they’ve got a shock reservoir that needs relocating:

I removed what I figured would be the easiest part of the installation first, so off came the factory grab bar, and in went the SW-MOTECH replacement. The rear grab bar is replaced wish a bottom plate that has the two upper mounting tabs for the quick release system. My only complaint here is that a spacer that is supposed to go underneath my helmet lock on either side of the bike is at least .020″ oversize. Another minor complaint is that apparently, to German engineers “locking nut” means “not threaded properly.” When I get around to it, half of these fasteners will be replaced with those having proper threading.

Rear grab bar replaced:

Greetings, oversized spacers:

From there, I tackled the rear bracket, which mounts in the factory fender – you’ll need that if you intend to use these mounts. I know most people lob the shovel of a rear fender off as soon as they can, but I never got around to it. My biggest problem with the rear mount is that there was no consideration given to the rubber grommets that are part of the factory mounting system for the rear turn signals, which must be relocated for the bags to fit. That lack of consideration leaves entirely too much free play in the relocated signals, and will have to be fixed by some rubber shims later. It would have been nice if they’d just sized the wings of the bracket to properly fit the grommets the bike came with, but I suppose you can’t think of everything all of the time.

Rear bracket work:

From the back:

The mounting tab that goes under the footpegs was actually the easiest part to install, and took all of two minutes. My complication will be the relocation of my shock reservoir, as it used to mount in the same place. The solution I’ve come up with, involves a drill.

Side case bracket all mounted up:

The other side, clearing the exhaust quite nicely:

Closer view of the exhaust to bracket clearance:

Finally, behold the Suzuki SV650ST

Click here for a few more photos.

I’m slowly uploading what I’ve recently taken. Chances are my posting will decline as I won’t have time to do it until at least the end of the month. When I can, I will. Also, don’t be shocked if I don’t reply to emails as quickly as usual. It would seem that loading a 32KB email is so crippling to the the .mil network that they were forced to shut such services down. You can, of course, still go to Google Images, type in Angelina Jolie, and feast your eyes upon whatever pops up. Nobody reading this actually expected someone employed by the government to actually understand access control lists, QoS, or any other fundamental of networking… did they?

Lap Around America

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

I said I’d post the route when I figure it out, so here you have it – or a screenshot of the route anyway. One day I’ll get around to uploading the actual route files. What you see is just shy of 10,000 miles. Should be fun.

Day 168

Originally uploaded by macktruckturner

Journler rocks. That’s really all I have to say right now. I’m in the process of moving my entire OIF5 notebook/journal over to this most ass kicking of applications. That isn’t all I’m going to keep track of there though – songs I write, photo ideas I get, all that jazz is going right into Journler. I’m going to send the dude that made this a cookie, and like $50 or something.

The Germans were defeated at Stalingrad, because I’m awesome like that (Call of Duty 2). Soon they’ll be ruined in Africa too. I’m sure when I get to the American part, things will get interesting (I’ll have to assume that a WW2 game starts the American portion with D-Day, so I expect to die a few thousand times before I ever make it to the MG42 nests.)

If you own a Mac, and write a lot of stuff that maybe you want to associate photos/music/video with – you need to follow the link to Journler, install it, and enjoy. That is all.

I woke up to head in for my 0000-1200 TOC shift, and was greeted by a solid 4′ wall of packages. It would appear as though everything is flowing towards us quickly now, having been through a weeklong interruption in mail flow due to the damage of two bridges that connect us to the rest of Iraq. I got 20 boxes last night, and one letter (Johanna Nice wins the “first one of my friends to handwrite me a real letter” prize, which has yet to be determined, but it’ll be good). She made a request, so I’ll make good on that with my 365day pic later today.

Honestly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with everything. My toughbox is nearly overflowing, and I’ve shared so much stuff with everyone out here that some stuff is just left hanging around. I think I’ll be bringing several boxes to the Chapel, for whoever happens to stop by. The majority of this last drop came from my Aunt’s pre-school(?), I got 17 boxes. The other three were from fellow motorcyclists, and members of Two Wheeled Texans. We’ll all have to go for a ride when I get home.

I’ve got a photo to post tomorrow, of my new Clock/Thermometer – 100F inside my tent. I know how an AC freezes up, but it still amazes me that it is even possible out here, given the dry air, and the extreme heat. We had to shut off the AC, and run the vent to melt the ice and let air flow freely again. Once the AC thawed out, it dropped the temp in our tent from 103F to 84F in 7 minutes. The Macbook Pro still did a pretty decent job of cooling itself off despite the ridiculous ambient temperature, the FujiP however would have been perfect for cooking a 2″ thick filet to medium rare in about 5 minutes. I can’t really say anything bad about the FujiP though, it’s probably still full of sand from OIF3. The fact that it even runs at all is awesome.

The first mail truck in a long while had a few packages for me on it today. Two from home, one from my Dad’s cousin, and one from the Evans family in Whillingford, PA. I asked for food, and boy did I get it. I did as I usually do, and sorted by what I’d share with my tent, what I’d share with the staff, and what I’d keep all to myself. Looks like I can start going back to the gym, as I no longer have to rush to the chow hall for lunch, I’ve got enough food in my room to handle that meal.

One item that stands out is a new alarm clock. It’s pretty loud, way louder than the turd I had at WLC. This fancy alarm clock has an extra feature I almost wish it lacked – a thermometer. Yesterday, it was a nice 96.4F inside my tent, I didn’t even bother going outside to see how hot it was on the outside. The AC works, in that it blows cold air, it just doesn’t blow enough cold air fast enough to fight against the hot air that comes in through the doors and other openings. We’ve got the same problem in the TOC. One giant hose pipes cold air directly on my chair, and someone else’s – but doesn’t do much to effectively cool the TOC. All the hot air just pools up top and keeps it nice and toasty.

Proving that I am in fact the oldest Martinez grandchild, I took some 100mph tape, and a large cardboard box, and got busy building a deflector to redirect the cold air up to the top of the TOC (which happens to also have a curved surface). To some folk’s suprise (not mine though, of course) it started getting cooler in here rather quickly. All at the same time, papers stopped flying off my desk. Fancy that. Of course, the materials used didn’t leave me with a professional looking product, and I’m sure the powers that be will make me take it off the hose because it looks bad – but it works. I’ll be doing a bit of ducting with empty water bottles, 100mph, and some 550 cord to hang it – from the AC plenum, to my cot. If the vent is only going to blow cold air out 2′ before it loses the fight to the heat, I might as well move those 2′ to somewhere I can enjoy. I’ll post photos to my photostream @ Flickr.

The other day I went ahead and ordered my lighting equipment, and updated the wish list to reflect the change. My account is $1300 lighter now, but hopefully it’s worth it in the long run. Anyway, I’ve got two more strobes, 4 wireless (RF) transcievers, stands, umbrellas, correction gels, and a partridge in a pear tree on the way. Should be fun to mess around with over R&R, especially with a bunch of the assignments on Strobist.

In other news, I’m anxiously awaiting the packages containing the final few episodes of Lost, which may well be the best TV show ever. Word is I’ve also got some House, and Heroes on the way. If anyone has Battlestar Galactica (Season 3 – present), feel free to burn it and send it, I’m willing to give it another chance now, seeing how I watched S1 and S2 out here last time, I may as well watch the rest while I’m here again.

A few days ago I was asked about re-enlistment. After the laughter ended, I was still being asked what it would seriously take to get me to re-enlist. I figure if the .mil can fork over about $88M for a month, and $4M a day after that, I might stay for another month. Something tells me that’s a little steep for even our rich Uncle.

Still no clue when R&R might be, but I’ll let folks know as soon as I know.

Thanks to the overwhelming support of my family and friends (and even people I don’t know that are reading this), my men and I have quite the stash of necessities. I have indicated as much to a number of these people and in turn been asked if there is anything else I want. For several weeks, the answer has been no. With the arrival of the last few boxes, I’m probably set for the remainder of the deployment as far as soap, shampoo/conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and deodorant go. I could still use additional Mach 3 razors, and shaving cream.

Beyond that, snacks would be great now. Stuff that won’t spoil on the way over here. The single serve tuna, canned food, Ramen (though we need to find a way to heat some water, other than the Sun), crackers, chips, etc. I don’t know specifically what my guys like to snack on, but I’m a big fan of crackers and oatmeal cream pies. Anyway, our needs are pretty well handled, and I’ve been asked about wants, so there you have it. Obviously, anything that gets sent out will not be wasted. If I can’t hold on to it, I will pass it along through the Brigade until everything is gone.

Thanks again for everyone’s support.